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NEW YORK - You can add another milestone to the long history of the New York Yankees.

Robinson Cano, Russell Martin and Curtis Granderson all homered with the bases loaded Thursday to make the Yankees the first team in major league history to hit three grand slams in one game.

Cano hit his grand slam in the fifth inning, Martin got his in the sixth and Granderson knocked a 94 mph fastball from Bruce Billings into the bullpen in the eighth inning to set the mark.

"Pretty crazy," said New York manager Joe Girardi.

The Yankees beat Oakland, 22-9, to avoid being swept at home by the Athletics for the first time in more than five years.

Martin also had a solo homer in the fourth inning and went 5-for-5 with six RBI for the Yankees, who climbed out of a 7-1 hole after three innings. New York had 21 hits in the game and batted around in the last four innings.

The game, delayed 89 minutes at the start because of rain, took 4 hours and 31 minutes to play. Things got so out of hand that Jorge Posada played second base for the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth and recorded the last out on a ground ball.

The Yankees hit two grand slams for the fourth time in franchise history when Martin put just enough of his bat on a Fautino De Los Santos fastball in the sixth inning, lining the 96 mph pitch into the first row of seats behind the right field wall to make it 10-7.

Seven Yankees -- including Martin and Cano -- batted with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, as New York sent 12 men to the plate and scored six more runs on two hits and seven walks.

Granderson was the third Yankee to bat with the bases loaded against Billings in the eighth and fouled off two straight 1-2 pitches before knocking a low fastball over the right-center field wall.

"You have to be pretty fortunate to be able to do that," Girardi said of the record. "Because you have to get the bases loaded a lot."

Derek Jeter, whose three hits included a triple, came up four times with the bases loaded but knocked in just one run. For good measure, Andruw Jones hit a solo homer after Granderson's record-setting blast in the eighth.

Alex Rodriguez, who got his first two hits since coming off the disabled list, batted with the bases loaded in the seventh but lined out. Rodriguez hit his 22nd career grand slam at Baltimore in April and is chasing Lou Gehrig's all- time record of 23.

"We may never see that again," Rodriguez said of the three grand slams.

There were seven home runs hit in the game, including two by Oakland. Cliff Pennington hit a three-run homer and knocked in four for the A's, while Scott Sizemore added a solo blast in the eighth.

The Yankees tentatively moved within a half-game of Boston for first place in the AL East. The Red Sox play at Texas later Thursday.

By the time the game ended, the starters (Phil Hughes for New York, Rich Harden for Oakland) were afterthoughts. De Los Santos (2-1) took the loss, while Yankees reliever Boone Logan (4-2) earned the win.

A's pitchers issued 13 walks in the game, including five by Jordan Norberto during the sixth and seventh innings.

Posada, who has fallen in and out of the Yankees lineup during a down season offensively, told Girardi he wanted to play second base for the first time in his MLB career and cleanly fielded Anthony Recher's grounder in the ninth.

His throw to first was rifled into the dirt, but dug out by Nick Swisher to end the bizarre game.

"It's been a long time since I took a ground ball in the middle of the infield," said Posada.

The A's knocked Hughes around for six runs and seven hits in just 2 2/3 innings and took a 7-1 lead after Pennington's three-run blast in the third.

Russell smacked his solo homer to right field in the fourth inning and Cano helped chase Harden with his grand slam in the fifth.

Game notes

The A's were trying for their first three-game sweep in the Bronx since June 9-11, 2006...The Yankees are 15-4 against the A's at home since the start of the 2008 season...This series started a 10-game road trip for Oakland that continues with three games in Boston starting Friday...The Yankees are headed on an eight-game road trip that begins with five games in Baltimore -- a series that could be impacted by Hurricane Irene.